For the older generation, there were likely many jobs, especially just before 2025s, that these days aren’t needed due to either a more efficient delivery of the job, electricity taking over or robots doing their job for them. Whichever way, these jobs were all quite important back in the day but has since been forgotten and aren’t needed by modern society. Let’s have a look at some of these jobs in question.
1. Human Alarm Clock
Yes, before the idea of using an alarm clock that would ring a bell at a certain time was a thing, people used to pay others to climb up to their window and knock to see if they were awake yet. To be fair, how else would people wake up at the right time?
2. Lector
A Lector was a well-spoken man who would come and read to you at times of your convenience. Think of it as Audible… before smartphones or Amazon or even any form of recorded audio really.
3. Pre-Radar Listener For AirCraft
Before there was technology that could utilise radio waves to detect where aircraft were. There was an enormous contraption like the one above that would be held by a man that would allow him to hear very far away distance aircraft coming in, which he’d then have to warn the airport about.
4. Bowling Pin Setter
Ever thought what happened in bowling before they had those machines that now automatically scoop your pins away and then reset your ten for you? Well, there would be people that would run out and set them up for you. Probably took a lot of time and likely didn’t pay well either.
5. Rat Catcher
These days if you have rat problems you either put down some poison or you put down a little trap you catch the rats. However, back in the day, you’d have someone who would wait at the entrance of their holes for you and then pounce on the little vermin with something heavy. What a job.
6. The Human Computer
How did people do maths and work out sums before there were computers? Well in fact, there’d be a room filled with people, mostly women at the time, who would sit and work out calculations for people. These were used mainly for financial sums.
7. Ice Cutter
Yes, before people had freezers that could just store their ice cream in, people would go out in the cold seasons and cut ice out and then store it and take it to people’s house who would need it. Such an odd job, but at the time, probably not as niche an idea as it would be today.
8. Lamplighter
Before we had streetlights that would automatically turn on as soon as it got to a certain darkness level outside, there used to be people who would go around with a very long lightable match who would light the fires in the streetlamps.
9. Milkman
To be fair, we probably do have a few milkmen left today who may deliver to the elderly who can’t make it out enough to get milk. But before refrigerators, milkmen were an every day occurrence as there was no way to preserve the milk for longer than a day.
10. Log Driver
Have you ever wondered how enormous logs were delivered across countries? Well, there were actually men who used to sit on and then guide these logs down streams to their destinations and then roll them to the nearest logging plant.
